Daily Clips
March 17, 2018
LOCAL
Moustakas makes return to KC lineup
Moose drives in two in first game since re-signing; Karns pitches four scoreless innings; Perez homers twice
March 16, 2018By Alan Eskew/MLB.com
Flynn headlines out-of-options Royals players
Tough depth decisions loom for Kansas City
March 16, 2018By Alan Eskew/MLB.com
In first spring game, Royals' Moustakas felt weird facing Hosmer but good at plate
March 16, 2018By Maria Torres/KC Star
Royals ace Danny Duffy doubles down on charity work
March 16, 2018By Shawn Moran/Cronkite News (via KC Star)
What's the future for Moose, Dozier and Schwindel? We answer your Royals questions
March 16, 2018By Maria Torres/KC Star
Pair of Royals in Butera and Skoglund like their Central Florida football
March 16, 2018By Shawn Moran/Cronkite News (via KC Star)
Unorthodox deliveries seem to work for Royals prospect Richard Lovelady
March 16, 2018By Rustin Dodd/The Athletic KC
NATIONAL
BREAKING: Altuve agrees to 5-year extension
2017 AL MVP coming off career year that included first MVP, World Series title
March 16, 2018By Brian McTaggart/MLB.com
Reds give rising star Suarez 7-year extension
Third baseman's $66 million deal includes club option for 2025
March 16, 2018By Mark Sheldon/MLB.com
MLB TRANSACTIONS
March 17, 2018 •.CBSSports.com
LOCAL
Moustakas makes return to KC lineup
Moose drives in two in first game since re-signing; Karns pitches four scoreless innings; Perez homers twice
March 16, 2018By Alan Eskew/MLB.com
Mike Moustakas was back in the Kansas City Royals' lineup for the first time since re-signing with the club last Saturday.
Moustakas went 1-for-4 with a two-run, two-out single in the fifth inning of a 12-4 victory over the San Diego Padres on Friday.
"It felt good," Moustakas said. "Obviously, I'm trying to get my timing back." He said he needs 25 to 30 at-bats before the season starts and it is more about getting his legs ready.
"Spring Training is definitely long," Moustakas said.
Moustakas chatted with former teammate Eric Hosmer at first base after his single and the two hugged before the game.
"He's one of my best friends," Moustakas said. "I love him to death. It's just weird seeing him in that uniform."
Moustakas is scheduled to play a few innings at third base on Saturday.
"I just need for him to get his at-bats," Royals manager Ned Yost said. "The more at-bats he gets, the more pitches he sees, his timing comes together and that's all you are looking to do -- get his rhythm and timing at the plate on fastballs, on secondary pitches, just seeing the ball."
Karns' solid outing
Royals starter Nathan Karns pitched four scoreless innings, allowing two hits, walking two and striking out four.
"I threw a little more [pitches] than I would have liked in four innings," Karns said. "But to go out there and compete and walk away with zeroes is pretty good."
Karns worked out of a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the second by striking out Austin Hedges and retiring A.J. Ellis on a grounder.
"It was fun," Karns said. "It was more of a Major League lineup out there. What I'm real happy about is to have that long inning. I think I threw 30 pitches that inning, but was able to go out there and grind and compete and not let any runs score. That's what I take away the most."
Offense shines
Salvador Perez homered twice, bringing his Cactus League total to five. Perez and Lucas Duda hit back-to-back homers in the sixth, Duda's being his first as a Royal. Ryan O'Hearn homered again after hitting two on Thursday. Billy Burns swiped three bases.
Injury update
Center fielder Tyler Collins was a late scratch with a stiff neck. Burns replaced him in the lineup.
Camp battle
Rule 5 pick Burch Smith worked a hitless sixth inning. He hit a batter, walked one and struck out two. He had yielded seven earned runs and walked five over four innings in his previous two outings. Brad Keller, another Rule 5 pick, worked a spotless ninth and struck out two.
Up next
The Royals will play a split-squad day-night doubleheader Saturday against the Rangers, their Surprise complex partner. Left-hander Eric Skoglund will start the afternoon game at 2:05 p.m. CT, while Jakob Junis will pitch the nightcap at 8:05 p.m. CT. Both games are available on MLB.TV.
Flynn headlines out-of-options Royals players
Tough depth decisions loom for Kansas City
March 16, 2018By Alan Eskew/MLB.com
Royals left-hander Brian Flynn is out of options. If the Royals were to try to send him to the Minors this spring, he would have to clear waivers and could be claimed by another club.
"I'm not taking anything for granted being out of options," Flynn said. "I want to be in Kansas City. It's close to home. They've been really good to me here.
"I don't want to have the surprise tap on the shoulder and meeting at the end of camp. I don't want to have to go through that whole process. I'm going to keep treating it like I've got to make the squad because I definitely didn't prove anything last year with all the injuries."
Flynn fractured a vertebra when he fell through the roof of his barn in Oklahoma last year just before reporting to Spring Training. He appeared in only one big league game and finished the season on the disabled list with a left groin strain.
Flynn threw two scoreless innings Thursday against the Los Angeles Dodgers to lower his Cactus League ERA to 1.13 ERA in four appearances.
Another lefty bullpen candidate is Tim Hill, a side-armer who was added to the 40-man roster for the first time. He has never pitched above Double-A.
The Royals are also extremely high on prospect Richard Lovelady, a lefty reliever who was a 10th-round 2016 Draft pick and vaulted to Double-A Northwest Arkansas last year.
Other out-of-options players on the Royals' roster include Jorge Soler, Cheslor Cuthbert and Wily Peralta who, if healthy, appear to be near locks to break camp with the club. Peralta, however, is having less than an impressive spring with a 16.20 ERA and allowing three home runs in five innings.
Right-hander Jesse Hahn, too, is out of options, but will begin the season on the 60-day DL.
Sometimes, having options can work against a player. Ramon Torres and Ryan Goins are competing for a utility infield roster spot.
Torres has an option left and the Royals might desire to use that, allowing the 25-year-old to get more steady work with Triple-A Omaha.
On the flip side, Goins, 30, is in camp on a Minor League contract. He would have to be added to the 40-man big league roster if he makes the club.
"It is what it is," Goins said. "You can't control being a non-roster invite. You just come here and compete every day and try to put your best foot forward daily and let them see that."
Goins, who played in 143 games last season with the Blue Jays, has an opt-out date next week if the Royals do not put him on the Major League roster.
In first spring game, Royals' Moustakas felt weird facing Hosmer but good at plate
March 16, 2018By Maria Torres/KC Star
On a Sunday five months ago — a picture-perfect, early fall day at Kauffman Stadium — third baseman Mike Moustakas played what he thought was his last game in a Royals uniform.
He was paraded onto the field for a tribute video, and he was sent into the home dugout for the final time with the roar of Mooooose resonating through the ballpark.
If free agency hadn’t failed him, if the major-league market for third basemen hadn’t crashed, that really might have been the last time he wore a Kansas City ballcap.
But 166 days later, the pomp and circumstance of that meticulously planned farewell behind him, there stood Moustakas on Friday afternoon, his cleats dug into the left-handed batter’s box at Peoria Stadium and a mid-March Arizona breeze rippling through the back of his No. 8 Royals blue jersey.
There were two outs in the fifth inning. Former Royals pitcher Chris Young stood 60 feet, 6 inches away on the mound for the San Diego Padres. Longtime teammate Eric Hosmer was 90 feet to Moustakas’ right at first base, sporting a different shade of blue.
(Moustakas would later say, "It’s just weird seeing him over there. For 12 years, I’ve seen him on this side. Navy blue does look good on him, though.")
The moment was surreal.
Then Moustakas fisted a two-RBI single into center field, Billy Burns and Whit Merrifield scored in the Royals' 12-4 win over the Padres, and nearly everything felt normal again.
As normal as it can feel for a player who missed the first month of spring training before signing a one-year contract last week to return to the Royals.
“I feel like I’m in a good spot,” said Moustakas, who went 1 for 4 with a strikeout in his first major-league game of the spring. “I feel like my timing is coming around. … I feel like I’m gonna get enough at-bats to be ready and we’ll see how it goes.”
The Royals want Moustakas to register between 30 and 35 at-bats before the team’s Cactus League tour ends on March 25. With 10 games in Arizona remaining on the schedule, manager Ned Yost is confident the All-Star will get those in.
And if not, Moustakas will saunter through the back fields at the Royals’ complex in Surprise to make sure he does reach that number.
For Moustakas and a handful of players in Royals camp, 35 at-bats are enough to warm up for a 162-game season. The only goal is for Moustakas to get his rhythm back at the plate, where he launched a franchise-record 38 home runs last season.
“Those aren’t those types of hitters that need 50 or 60 at-bats to get ready,” Yost said.
So even if he spent the offseason worried about where those at-bats would come, the long winter shouldn’t doom Moustakas’ season.
“It’s kind of the same thing if guys were coming off an injury or getting hurt a little bit earlier in spring,” Moustakas said. “You’re gonna get your at-bats. You’re just gonna get them a little later. Especially with the amount of games we have left, I think we’ll be just fine.”
Game notes
▪ Salvador Perez went yard twice, including a two-out, two-run homer to left field that put the Royals ahead for good.
▪ With Moustakas at the plate in the fifth inning, Burns and Merrifield executed a double steal. Burns, who cleared waivers after being designated for assignment when the Royals signed first baseman Lucas Duda, stole three bags in the game. He started in place of Tyler Collins, who was scratched from the lineup because of a sore neck.
▪ Hosmer clubbed a two-out, two-run homer of his own against Kelvin Herrera in the fifth inning. As he rounded the bases, he flashed a smile to the Royals dugout.
According to a tweet from MLB.com reporter AJ Cassavell, Hosmer told reporters, "He got 0-2 on me and kept smiling. That's the thing about these guys. They're going to try to challenge you, get you on a heater. I had a pretty good idea a heater was coming."
Hosmer, by the way, spent about 10 minutes before the game catching up with Royals coaches and players on the field. Moustakas was the first to greet him, offering him a hug and chatting for five minutes before running off to see his wife, Stephanie, who brought toddler Mila and infant Michael Carter to the game.
▪ Nathan Karns tossed four scoreless, two-hit innings. He got into some trouble in the second, allowing both hits and a walk, but nothing came of it.
Karns struck out four batters, increasing his spring total to 11 through three starts.
▪ Duda hit his first home run of the spring after Perez led off the sixth inning with his own bomb to left field.
Left-handed hitter Ryan O’Hearn, who replaced Duda in the bottom of the sixth inning, squared up a pitch and powered a two-run home run in the seventh inning. O’Hearn has hit three homers and driven in nine runs in his last five at-bats.
▪ The Royals (11-10-1) will play a split doubleheader against the Texas Rangers on Saturday at Surprise Stadium. The first game begins at 2:05 p.m. and will be broadcast on Fox Sports Kansas City.
The second game is scheduled to start at 8:05 p.m. and will be shown on MLB Network.
Royals ace Danny Duffy doubles down on charity work
March 16, 2018By Shawn Moran/Cronkite News (via KC Star)
Danny Duffy is a man of the people.
Last season, for every strikeout that he threw, Royals pitcher Duffy donated $500 to Noah’s Bandage Project, a charity that benefits the fight against pediatric cancer. This year, he will double that pledge to $1,000 per strikeout.
“It made a big impact last year, and it was so cool,” Duffy said. “The community rallied around it, and we just decided to kind of go a little bit more.”
The Project was founded by Noah Wilson and his family when Noah noticed that all of the bandages he received from the hospital were brown and boring. Because of this, Noah decided he wanted to collect and distribute colorful bandages to other young kids who were going through cancer treatments.
Noah was diagnosed with Ewing Sarcoma, a rare type of bone cancer, when he was only 6 years old. A little over a year later, in June 2015, Noah passed away after contracting acute myeloid leukemia (AML) due to the chemotherapy drugs he was on.
That didn’t stop him from inspiring one of his favorite players on his favorite team.
“He was smiling in the clubhouse when he was going through the worst of his time, and it was very inspiring to see him carrying himself the way he was and with the kind of happiness that he had going through what he was going through at the time,” Duffy said.
So why does the charity mean so much to Duffy? Duffy met Noah at Kauffman Stadium a few years ago, and they hit it off immediately.
“Just with meeting Noah and seeing how on fire for that cause he was,” Duffy said. “He really sparked me to open up, and I think that’s kind of my calling, is helping kids with that and trying to find a cure.”
Minor-league catcher Parker Morin thinks there could be another reason Duffy is so involved in Noah’s Bandage Project.
“Just the little bit I’ve been around him, you can tell he really cares about everybody that he comes in contact with,” Morin said of Duffy.
After raising more than $93,000 last year, Duffy hopes to triple that amount this season through his higher pledge, more strikeouts and more help from fan donations. In addition to Duffy’s strikeout pledge, fans who donate $2 per strikeout will receive a Danny Duffy autographed baseball.
Royals manager Ned Yost took a humorous approach when asked how many strikeouts he wants out of Duffy this year.
“Seven or eight thousand,” Yost said. “That’s my hope. I don’t know if he’ll reach it.”
After striking out 130 batters last season, it appears that Duffy might fall a little short of Yost’s expectations. Although, even with his increased pledge this season, Duffy will not feel any pressure to strike out batters more than usual.
“It’s hard enough as it is, man,” Duffy said. “It’s hard enough as it is. I just try to focus on the glove and do what I can to get quick outs and sometimes (recording strikeouts) just happens.”
During the World Series run three years ago, Duffy decided on very unique attire that is still benefiting Noah’s Bandage Project. After clinching the American League Central in 2015, Duffy sported a bear suit inside the clubhouse and famously told Fox Sports Kansas City’s Joel Goldberg, “It’s a bear suit, Joel.” That phrase has been made into t-shirts, with sales going directly to pediatric cancer research.
“It’s one of the most random things of all time,” Duffy said. “I’m a pretty random guy but that one took the cake.”
As long as Duffy is pitching in the majors , there will be donations made to help children going through cancer treatments. Ever since meeting Noah, he has been heavily dedicated to the cause and has made great use of his star-player platform. Even though there might not be a happy ending to every story, Duffy has not let that discourage his philanthropic attitude.
“I’ve had to say goodbye to a couple of young soldiers, but those families are amazing,” Duffy said. “They carry on the legacy of their kids, and it’s been a very interesting experience. I’ve gotten to meet a lot of really cool people.”